


The (Eventual) Rise of Maul

by TheDarkDreams



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Manipulation, Order 66, Seduction to the Dark Side, The Dark Side of the Force
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23856511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkDreams/pseuds/TheDarkDreams
Summary: “What do you want with Anakin Skywalker?” Ahsoka asked firmly. It was as much a question as it was a threat. The girl was clearly looking to guarantee her former Master’s safety.How inconvenient for him that Ahsoka had asked the most troublesome question. If he answered truthfully, his chances of turning her from an enemy into an ally would be lost. He knew the Padawan would refuse to join him if she thought it meant betraying her mentor. If Maul admitted that he meant Skywalker harm, then Ahsoka would turn on him here and now.So, taking a page out of Sidious' book, Maul decided to manipulate Ahsoka. After all, it was for the greater good.TLDR: Everything still goes wrong for the Jedi & the Skywalkers. For once though, everything goes right for Maul.
Relationships: Darth Maul & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 9
Kudos: 112





	1. The Phantom of a Different Choice

“Every choice you have made has led you to this moment.”

Maul offered Ahsoka his hand. Indeed, that's what this was: An offer. He was giving the former Jedi what Darth Sidious had never given him, a choice. The ability to decide her fate for herself. She could join him in his quest to destroy his old Master, or they could both draw their lightsabers and battle for dominance. Frankly, those were the only two paths he saw forward. Of course, Maul knew which outcome he preferred. A lightsaber duel between Ahsoka and himself would merely be an exercise in futility. He conceded that it would certainly be a truly glorious and epic spectacle. However, who won or lost wouldn't be relevant in the grand scheme of things. It wouldn't change anything once Sidious enacted the final moves of his master plan.

The windowpane to his right erupted from a nearby explosion, making shards of glass clattered at their feet. As ember and ash flew past them, they themselves remained entirely still. They were unmoved by the violence outside for very different reasons though. Maul was completely apathetic about the deaths of his Mandalorian loyalists. They were nothing but a backdrop to him. Meanwhile, he imagined that Ahsoka cared deeply about the death of the soldiers under her command. Therefore, her being frozen in place was presumably nothing but an indicator of her intense internal struggle to come to a decision. Maul could imagine that the fiery tempest going on outside was nothing compared to the battle taking place in Ahsoka's heart and mind. Would she stand with him, or would she oppose him? She had no Jedi council to instruct her on what to do this time. It all came down to her.

Finally, the silence between them was broken as her mind was made up. “I will help you.”

The former Sith had to hold back a dramatic sigh of relief. So, Ahsoka possessed enough wisdom to agree that they should join forces. Thank goodness for that. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't help a small smile from forming on his face. He couldn't remember the last time he had smiled in a way which wasn't either sadistic or sarcastic. Being sincerely pleased was a rare thing for him, probably because nothing ever seemed to go his way.

Unfortunately, there was a caveat. Ahsoka went on, revealing the stipulation that came with her allegiance. “But you must answer one question.” That demand was unwelcome, but not unexpected. There always seemed to be a caveat whenever he brokered a deal of any kind. A new obstacle blocking his path mere moments after he had finally cleared the last one.

It was frustrating that certain doom wasn't enough of a motivation for Ahsoka to join him unconditionally, but he swallowed his grievances. “You have but to ask,” he assured her. He had conquered many things in his miserable excuse for a life, answering one question should be easy enough.

How wrong he was.

“What do you want with Anakin Skywalker?” Ahsoka asked firmly. It was as much a question as it was a threat. The girl was clearly looking to guarantee her former Master’s safety. 

How inconvenient for him that Ahsoka had asked the most troublesome question. If he answered truthfully, his chances of turning her from an enemy into an ally would be lost. He knew the Padawan would refuse to join him if she thought it meant betraying her mentor. If Maul admitted that he meant Skywalker harm, then Ahsoka would turn on him here and now.

So, taking a page out of Sidious' book, Maul decided to manipulate Ahsoka. After all, it was for the greater good.

Instead of speaking honestly, he gave her an answer he knew she'd be more than happy to hear. “You must have heard the prophecy of the Chosen One, I'd imagine? Skywalker is the only one who can destroy the Sith. With his help, Sidious would surely fall. That is what I want him for.” The lies came easily, as did the genuine and sincere tone he spoke with.

With Ahsoka's concerns properly addressed and settled, the time for deliberation was well and truly over. After hesitating for one short instance more, the former Jedi began walking towards him. He wouldn't exactly describe her body language as confident, but it was far less doubtful then it had been moments before. She gently placed her soft hand into his calloused one. They stood there in silence for a minute, each regarding the other up close. Ahsoka spoke up first. “I can't believe I'm saying this to you of all people, but you have my assistance Maul.”

He couldn't tell whether the girl was attempting to be humorous or simply speaking seriously, nor did it particularly matter to him. His deception had been successful. It was just as Sidious had taught him, manipulating the desperate was easy and effective. Of course, in the current circumstances, Maul was actually far more desperate than Ahsoka was. Unlike her, he truly knew who they were dealing with. He knew just how much was at stake. They couldn't afford to waste any more time. The Galaxy slipped further and further into Sidious' clutches with every second that passed. “Thank you for your allegiance, but time is incredibly short. We must go find Skywalker now.”

“Right,” she nodded her assent immediately. If anything, Ahsoka was a woman of incredible drive and initiative. Now that she had agreed to follow his decided course of action, nothing would be able to slow her down. She ran out of the throne room’s main entrance and he followed behind her. Once outside, he called for the Force’s aide, and used it to leap a great distance into the air. From there, he landed on the roof of the royal palace itself only to jump again and land on the girders above the entire city. Looking back, he saw Ahsoka had followed him easy enough.

The woman's eyes weren't on him though, they were on the battle that still went on below them. Worry creased her brow and clouded her expression. Maul reasoned that she must deeply care about several of the clones down there. How ironic then that they were fated to betray and murder her if she had stayed. The clones were as much a tool of Sidious as he himself and Dooku had been. “I'm sure the Republic Forces below us will be fine in your absence, especially with the assistance of the Mandalorians led by Lady Bo-Katan.” His words were intended to be reassuring, but with the particularly intense voice he possessed, they sounded more like mockery than anything else.

Nonetheless, his speech seemed to have the desired effect. Ahsoka looked away from her perishing friends and focused on the task at hand. “So, what's the plan?”

“Mandalore was never going to be the stage for the climax of this theatre of war,” he replied. “The real crescendo will be performed on Coruscant. Where both Skywalker and Sidious currently reside. If we are to have any significant impact on how events unfold, we need to be there.”

“To help Anakin defeat the Sith,” she supplied in elaboration. He nodded in agreement to pacify her. The Togruta thought they were going to Skywalker for the man's help, and Maul would make sure she kept that delusion for as long as this took. Once Ahsoka had delivered him to her former Master, he'd strike the Jedi down where he stood. The former Sith would thereby dismantle all of Sidious’ hard work manipulating the boy into his good graces. Yes, the final part of his Master's plan would be destroyed with one swift stroke of his double bladed saber.

“Lord Maul, we must depart immediately,” came a voice from his wrist communicator. His pilot had arrived. He climbed up the girders to their highest point. From there, he activated his lightsaber and used it to break the glass separating them from the ship. The entry ramp lowered to close the distance separating them. He leapt on and turned, hoping to see that Ahsoka had followed him up. 

She hadn't. Now that it was time for her to take the final step, she was hesitating again. Her brow furrowed in thought. She was probably considering how shocked and disappointed Kenobi would be when he learned of their alliance. Indeed, Maul was certainly looking forward to taunting his old nemesis over it himself. “I'd appreciate it if you made haste, Lady Tano,” he called down to her. The formal way he addressed her slipped out without much thought. Theirs was a formal relationship after all. A partnership born from necessity rather than friendship.

Just as he hoped, his remakes awoke her from her stupor. After one last look below at their clashing forces, Ahsoka jumped onto the entry ramp which quickly shut after she landed. There was no going back now. They were in this together, they would face both their former masters together, and whatever fate awaited them was theirs to share. Maul liked the sound of that idea. He hadn't had a true ally since his brother had been slaughtered by Sidious.

He would never admit it, to others or to himself, but he had missed the companionship. He had spent more than a decade isolated in exile after Kenobi cut him into two. That long and arduous experience had taught him the value of company. Even if that company didn't completely trust you, it was better than being alone. In his conscious mind, Maul justified his satisfaction at Ahsoka's presence merely as him relishing the success of his plan to convince her to join forces. There was strength in numbers, he knew that for certain. Plus, they were now out of the grasp of the clones, which certainly put both of them in a safer position. 

“Welcome aboard, Lady Tano,” he said politely. There was something else he wished to add though. It might be too soon to say, and he might soon end up regretting it, but neither of those concerns stopped him. “I have a good feeling about this.”

The ship left the planet’s atmosphere, and took them on a journey to confront their fate.


	2. Ruminations and Meditations

“Are you… meditating?”

Maul opened his eyes to stare at her blankly. Not just like he didn’t understand the question, he also didn't care for an explanation. To be fair, Ahsoka wasn’t entirely sure why she had asked the question in the first place. Perhaps it was out a desire to fill this uncomfortable silence that had settled between the both of them. The Jedi had taught her how to kill Sith Lords, they had neglected to teach her how to make small talk with them. As Rex once told her, so long ago, experience outranks everything. She definitely didn’t have any experience in situations as peculiar and awkward as this. How did one even begin to make amicable conversation with former enemies turned uncertain allies? Could she really expect a Sith to be skilled in small talk?

Maul was still staring at her blankly, seemingly refusing to look away from her first. Likewise, she didn’t stop meeting his gaze either. She wouldn’t let herself be intimidated. She wouldn’t reveal any of the uncertainty she felt regarding him. She couldn’t afford for the renegade Sith Lord to think she was weak. He was sitting cross legged on the cold metal floor, which caused her to be looking down on him. Despite height being in her favor in this particular instance, his presence in the room still felt significantly larger than hers.

Continually looking straight into Maul’s bloodshot yellow eyes would soon begin to seriously unnerve her. She needed an out which wasn’t a surrender. Fortunately, Obi-Wan had taught her the merit and power of words. With nowhere else to go in the conversation, she decided to elaborate on what the thought behind her original question was. “I’m sorry, it’s just, you looked so serene sitting there with your eyes shut. I didn’t think Sith meditated. Especially not in a manner which is serene.”

“First off,” Maul began, “never apologise for asking a question. The pursuit of knowledge is perceived as shameful only by the stupid and foolish.” His words could have been seen as harsh, but they weren’t spoken scathingly. “Secondly, contrary to your beliefs, the Sith do meditate. Their methods and goals for mediating are very different than those of the Jedi though. The Jedi ask you to empty your mind of everything, in the hope of reaching a state of true peacefulness. The Sith on the other hand, demand you to put all your focus onto one point of immense hate, so that you may find an outlet for your anger. The Sith use mediation as a tool to guide them and their hate.” Ahsoka was surprised just how much the Zabrak was revealing. She really didn’t expect him to be so candid and open. After that, she now thought he was done talking, but he had one more thing to add. “Thirdly, I am not a Sith.” That last sentence was growled out more than it was spoken. The sudden shift in the tone of his voice was so unexpected and surprising that she nearly was knocked off her feet. He was practically seething with unwieldy and unyielding outrage.

Instead of retreating from what was obviously a sensitive subject, Ahsoka charged headfirst towards it. She could be as reckless as Anakin when she wanted to be, especially regarding topics which others deemed to be off limits. Since he was still sitting on the floor, she could tower over him for once. He was usually significantly taller than her after all. “Oh? You're not a Sith? What are you then, Maul?”

He rose to his feet, recognising a challenge when he saw one. He stepped far enough into her personal space that she could feel the air from his short breaths hitting her face. Maul didn’t answer her question this time, instead deciding to deflect it back at her. “What about you Lady Tano? What are you, a Jedi part timer?"

“Hardly,” Ahsoka replied instantly. Her response came without her needing a moment to think. “If I were a part timer, they would have actually had to pay me a wage. I never earned a single credit in that place.” Her tone was as serious as it had been before, but it was obvious that she was joking. Her attempt at humor was made to hopefully de-escalate this situation. To defuse the mounting tension between them before it could burst into violence or aggression. Thankfully, her plan had actually worked. After a small smirk from Maul, he finally backed out of her personal space and sat back on the floor in the same position from before she had interrupted him.

“Mind if I join you?” She asked confidently. Emboldened by how successfully she had peacefully resolved the imbalance between them.

Maul kept his eyes shut as he gestured to the empty space in front of him. “Be my guest.”

Ahsoka kneeled down onto the ground. It took her a few moments to settle herself properly. She remembered the advice Anakin had given her when it came to trying to meditate. His words stayed with her even now. _Breathe. Just breathe. Reach out with your feelings._

Indeed, she did reach out. When the Force reached back, she let the material world go. Her mind left her body behind. Her consciousness moved out of the physical realm as it entered into the Cosmic Force. 

She was connected to everything, and everything was connected to her. Their ship was in hyperspace, flying past dozens of stars. She felt all their warmth on her as they flew passed. In between the stars was a chasm, terrifyingly cold and utterly empty. An eternal void. An unending desert except for the oasis the stars provided. Planets in the hundreds also passed them by, connected to those very stars. Many of these worlds were teaming with life. Sometimes that life was intelligent and sentient, sometimes it wasn’t. But that mattered little. They were all alive. All the same in the eyes of the Force.

She sensed Maul in front of her. As she had suspected, he was entirely calm. Almost eerily so. Like a lake with water so utterly still that its surface became a perfect mirror. That proved to be an apt analogy. Looking into Maul, she only saw a reflection of herself. They were incredibly similar for coming from opposing orders. They had both been taken as children by ancient dogmatic religions. They had both believed those religions had given them a place and purpose in the galaxy. They had both been nothing but loyal students, only for both of them to be cast aside and abandoned. It was incredibly easy for her to sympathise with Maul, because it felt identical to her sympathising with herself.

Peering beyond her surroundings, she inspected the Force as a whole. The Force itself was a raging storm. That was sadly nothing new though. The Force had been like this ever since the Clone War had begun. To her, this violent tempest was all she had ever known the Force to be. She had only been a youngling when the fighting started after all. Despite all this though, the Force felt more calm today then usual. Strangest of all however, was the fact that this clam wasn’t at all comforting. All it gave her was a sense of foreboding, a dreadful feeling of impending doom.

If Maul’s claims about Sidious were true, which she had no reason to doubt, then she was right to feel concerned. Her unlikely ally had said that Coruscant was where the crescendo of the war would take place. So, she asked the Force to take her there. She approached the planet in her mind’s eye. The world wide city that Coruscant was, gave it a distinct signature in the Force. There were so many sentients on the planet that it shone like a regular star did. The only difference being that Coruscant, for all its splendor, wasn’t radiant like the stars were. The light wasn’t brilliant there, it was shallow. A trillion lifeforms all packed on top of each other. The rich and the powerful lived on the surface in the sunlight. Everyone else was therefore forced down into the underworld that was the thousands of lower levels of the planet. Like the Martez sisters, they had been failed by the Jedi just like Ahsoka had. Like so many innocent citizens of the Republic had.

Moving beyond that, she searched for her oldest and truest friend. Anakin Skywalker. He was always easy for her to find. He was like a supernova in the Force. So bright and warm. Just sensing him soothed her. She concentrated on what she wanted to know and the Force provided her with answers. It told her that Anakin was in the Chancellor’s office. That made sense, the Council had told him to keep an eye on Palpatine after all.

Wait, something wasn’t right. Anakin’s mighty presence was wavering and uncertain. She had never felt him this way before, and it was only getting worse. Her breathing, once so calm and relaxed, was quickly becoming faster and more intense.

 _He must stand trial._

“I sense it too,” Maul said in front of her. His words fell entirely on deaf ears however. She didn’t consciously comprehend what he had said in the slightest. She was too deeply enraptured in what she was feeling. Unadulterated terror was building inside of her. 

_I need him._

It felt like the Force itself was unraveling before her eyes. The light side which had always held so steadfast, was utterly brittle now. It was cracking, breaking, dying. She was wheezing now, struggling to even catch one breath of air. Like she had been exposed to the vacuum of space.

_Power! Unlimited Power!_

She was yelling. She was screaming. 

It was shattered. 

It was all shattered.

The Force, the Jedi. All of it.

**Shattered, shattered, shattered.**

Everything was darkness. Everything went black.

* * *

Maul opened his eyes on a changed galaxy. Nay, a changed universe. He found Ahsoka Tano passed out in front of him. The truth of what had just happened had been too much for her to bear. He unfortunately understood why. The supernova that was Skywalker’s presence in the light side of the Force was irrevocably gone now. 

Maul was attuned to the wellspring of the dark side of the Force. He had been monitoring it for some time. The moment Skywalker’s signature had disappeared, Maul had felt an implosion of the light. A singularity had been created. There was a new Sith in the galaxy, of that he was certain. Furthermore, the identity of this new Sith was readily apparent to him.

Anakin had fallen. All of Sidious’ grooming had finally paid off. More than that even. It had paid off in full, plus interest. 

Maul wouldn’t be surprised if Ahsoka mistakenly assumed that Skywalker was dead. Everything the man had ever been was inverted and reversed in an instant. From the perspective of a light sider, it was like Skywalker had completely vanished. Like the man had merely ceased to exist. 

His force signature was gone. In its place was a black hole. Cold and destructive. Empty and yet also all-consuming.

For all intents and purposes, Anakin Skywalker was truly dead.

All the paths were coming together now, and Maul didn’t think he was going to like where they led. Sidious had perverted fate to comply with his wicked designs. There was a serious possibility that the future his former Master desired to create was inexorable and inevitable now. Still, nothing was set in stone yet. The future was always in motion. There were infinite paths forward, infinite possibilities. 

Maul merely needed the strength to unlock one of those alternative pathways. Hopefully Ahsoka would be able to assist him with that. He looked down on her unconscious form warily. Would she have the mental fortitude to survive the loss of her old friends and mentors? A catatonic Togruta would be no use to him. 

But then again, a broken thing could be reformed. Remade in someone’s image. Yes, that idea was interesting indeed. 

As their ship continued to travel through Hyperspace to Coruscant, Maul pondered the potential outcomes before him. He had already manipulated Ahsoka into joining him, and that had gone incredibly effectively. His trickery had been the only thing which made their confrontation in the throne room go in his favor. 

She’d presumably be even more susceptible once she learnt of the slaughter of all the Jedi.

Why not manipulate her further?

**Author's Note:**

> Love it? Hate it? Let me know. Feedback of any kind is appreciated!


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